1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to computer telephony, and more particularly to providing an efficient platform for advanced interactive voice
2. Related Art
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) platforms, also commonly known as Voice Response Units (VRUs) or Audio Response Units (ARUs), are common in the telecommunications industry. It is common for a business, who is a customer of an IVR service provider, to use IVR services in conjunction with call center services. Interactive voice response service nodes are commonly used for customer call center routing. They perform processing of customer applications, based on one or more criteria selected by the customer, such as the dialed number of a call, Dialed Number Identification Service (DNIS), Automatic Number Identification (ANI), time of day, caller-entered digits, geographic point of call origin, etc. The IVR service nodes may also perform other IVR services such as automated servicing of callers for customers, caller surveys, telemarketing, and call parking until a call center has an available resource (e.g., a customer service agent).
While there are many types of IVR service nodes each with variations in architecture and features, they typically include a network audio server that is connected, via voice trunks, to a bridging switch on a switch network. The network audio server typically contains many network ports to receive calls and application ports to process the calls. However, all currently available IVR service nodes have several limitations.
One limitation of conventional IVR service nodes, in particular, is that they have limited application processing capability. Customers increasingly demand more advanced IVR applications that require specialized application ports. The IVR service nodes include many different types of application ports to handle different customer""s IVR applications. For example, an application port can be a voice port that is capable only of playing recorded messages and accepting Dual Tone Multi Frequency (DTMF) input; a speaker-independent voice recognition (SIVR) port; or a speaker-dependent voice recognition (SDVR) port. The latter two ports have more capabilities and thus are generally more expensive. Consequently, an IVR service provider will limit their number on a IVR service node. Furthermore, conventional IVR service nodes have their application ports hardwired to network ports. Thus a call that requires SIVR or SDVR could only be accepted on certain network ports hardwired to SIVR or SDVR application ports, respectively. If those ports are busy, but a voice port is available, the call has to be blocked or held up until an SIVR or SDVR application port becomes available.
The above described limitations result in network inefficiencies. Therefore, what is needed is an advanced resource management system for interactive voice response service nodes. The advanced resource management system should allow, through dynamic allocation, any application port to be applied to any network port to service a call to the IVR service node.
The present invention is directed to a system and method for an interactive voice response service node with advanced resource management. The method includes interfacing the resource management system with a plurality of network and application ports located on the service node. When a call comes into the service node, via the network ports, the advanced management resource system determines which of the plurality of application ports has the capability to service the call. Each of the plurality of application ports may include different capabilities (e.g., SIVR functionality) to service different types of calls. The system then dynamically assigns one of the plurality of time slots to one of the plurality of network ports and to one of the plurality of application ports. Allocating the same time slot to an application port and to a network port connects the call for IVR handling.
An advantage of the present invention is that, unlike traditional service nodes, the application ports are not hardwired to the network ports. This allows a more efficient handling of calls by a service node. For example, a call requiring only voice application port capabilities may come into any network port on the service node and be handled by any available application port. This also allows calls needing special application port capabilities to be received by any network port without being blocked from the service node.
Yet another advantage of the present invention is that network flexibility is improved. Because any network port may be dynamically assigned to any application port within an, any network port may now receive a call needing an advanced capability (e.g., SIVR) application port. Therefore a single trunk group may route calls to the service node from the telecommunications network in which it is deployed. Further features and advantages of the present invention as well as the structure and operation of various embodiments of the invention are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.